The court affirmed the necessity of a fair hearing and reasoned decisions by authorities in tenancy disputes.

ORDER :

P.T.Asha, J.

The Writ Petition No.12048 of 2024 is filed for a certiorarifed mandamus to quash the order passed by the second respondent dated 12.04.2024 and remit the matter back to the second respondent for conducting denovo enquiry.

2.The main ground of challenge to the above impugned order was that petitioner was not given an opportunity of hearing before the impugned order was passed.

3.The facts which have culminated in the filing of the above Writ Petition is herein below set out:-

The impugned order which is the subject matter of challenge before this Court according to the petitioner is nothing but a repeat of the earlier order which has passed on 02.03.2023 and corrected as 07.03.2023. The impugned order appealed against the order passed by the third respondent rejecting the petitioner's request for modification of the entries in the Record of Tenancy Rights and to substitute the petitioner's name as the cultivating tenant in the place of his father. The petitioner would contend that his father was a cultivating tenant in respect of the lands which comprised in S.No.206/1, 693/1, 693/2, 693/3, 722/1, 722/2, 722/3, 722/4 and 723, Nanjundapuram village, Coimbatore North Taluk, Coimbatore. Under the predecessors in interest of respondents 4 to 11 he had been registered as a cultivating tenant and his name was registered in the Approved Record of Tenancy Rights Register and published in the Coimbatore District Gazette.

4.The petitioner would submit that his father was very regular in the payment of the rents. While so proceedings were initiated against him by the predecessor in interest of respondents 4 to 11 under the Tamil Nadu Cultivating Tenants ( Payment of Fair Rent) Act, 1956, in F.R.P.No.56 of 1989 and the fair rent also came to be fixed. The said amounts were being paid regularly by his father and that apart both the petitioner as well as his father had contributed their physical labour for cultivating the lands. The petitioner would submit that now he is cultivating the lands with the help of his sons who are contributing their physical labour.

5.The petitioner would submit that his father had executed a Will dated 21.06.2000 bequeathing the tenancy rights in respect of the aforesaid lands in favour of the petitioner. The petitioner had after the death of his father filed T.R.No.1 of 2012 on the file of Tenancy Record Officer and Tahsildar, Coimbatore, for recording him as cultivating tenant in respect of the lands in question. The said application was vehemently opposed by respondents 4 to 11 and consequently by order dated 02.07.2013, the third respondent was pleased to allow the application.

6.Aggrieved by the said order, the respondents 4 to 11 filed W.P.No.29341 of 213 and by order dated 25.04.2014, this Court was pleased to set aside the order of the third respondent and remit the matter back to the third respondent for fresh disposal.

7.Pending these proceedings, respondents 4 to 11 had sold the lands in question to the twelfth respondent under a registered sale deed dated 12.07.2013. In fact, the sale was effected even before the filing of the Writ Petition. Aggrieved by the order passed in W.P.No.29341 of 2013, the petitioner herein was pleased to file Writ Appeal No.663 of 2014 and the Division Bench had confirmed the order of the Single Judge with modifications.

8.During the enquiry after the remand, the petitioner had filed I.A.No.1 of 2014 in T.R.No.1 of 2012 bringing to the notice of the tenancy record officer and Thasildar that respondents 4 to 11 had sold his land to the twelfth respondent in the year 2013 itself which had been suppressed before the Tenancy court. Therefore, they are not land owners. However, the third respondent proceeded to summarily reject the said application and rejected the petitioner's claim for registering him as a cultivating tenant.

9.Aggrieved by this order the petitioner had preferred A.P.No.15 of 2014 on the file of the second respondent and the second respondent by an